I have to perform the "image restoration" thing though, but it says "available after warmup".

How long should the "warmup" take? The guy I bought it from said it has basically been collecting dust for years why would anyone not want to use a fw900??

edit #1: Okay, I went ahead and ate dinner, and when I came back image restoration was available, now the brightness/contrast looks great.

Only one more problem - I'm getting a "ghost image" effect, where I will for instance see faded letters offset from the actual text. It's not noticeable from far away but it's there. How do I fix this? It only happens with VGA, but I can't use BNC because either my cable is bad, or the connector on the monitor is bad (no red)

Also, what should I use to clean the screen? I don't think there are any scratches but it is kind of filthy.

edit #2: I've determined that the BNC problem lies with the cable, and not the monitor. I'll just order a new cable and fix the above problem as well. Another thing concerns me though - it looks like that at one point in its lifetime someone actually spilled a soft drink into the back of the monitor. It's totally dried out now, but it still kind of worries me. Should I get it professionally cleaned before using it heavily?

I don't think it's inside the glass, but likely what you're seeing is a scratch in the anti-glare filter. If it's not that, it can't be removed.

Well, I can tell it's deeper than the anti glare coating by looking from the side of the monitor down the length of it and putting my finger where the little dot is - there's space between them. Looks like I may have to stick with it

Unless the anti-glare coating is actually on the tube, and scratches can look like little black specs, that is.

I recently bought on ebay a 24 inch screen FW900. This screen works perfectly except for the lower resolution or with a frequency of 60Hz. With 60Hz and a frequency 640x480 or 800x600 I got no display(black screen). The monitor detects a signal at the input (I tested the two entries) but there is no display. It's embarrassing because at PC boot, i have no display entering the bios and the display is done only once into Windows. No display either the first launch of some games that are defaulted in low resolution and 60hz. With 72Hz and 1024x768, the display reappears. Has anyone had the same problem or idea of the origin of this problem? I tried with several different PC and still have the same problem. The tube is in perfect condition and when the screen is working the display is very very good. Thank you for your help.

I was recently conned into purchasing a defective hp version of the gdm-fw900. It currently has the common brightness issue everyone talks about as well as the horizontal green lines issue. When I press the image restore button, the monitor goes into a very brief brightness adjustment mode but then all of a sudden stops and kicks into standby mode. Turning the monitor back on reveals that nothing happened and that the restore process failed. I then attempted the windas method and attempted to save the monitor settings to a file, but a split second into it the monitor shuts itself off completely, not just into standby mode. The .dat file does get created, and it contains a bit of information, but it's obviously incomplete... At most two hundred characters are transmitted (including spaces).

I am hoping to avoid the courts and try to see if I can fix it myself (I have some minor electronics knowledge) or send it out to repair. I live in NYC but I can't seem to find any Sony repair shops. Based on the symptoms, does anyone have any advice? It would be much appreciated.

I've had mine for a couple of years now. The text has been slowly getting soft until it was finally downright blurry. Fine tuning all the OSD convergence controls did nothing, so I cracked open the service manual and found the focus controls on the flyback. About 10 minutes later, the monitor back had been removed, the top shield removed and the glyptol on the focus1 and focus2 screws removed and the text was as sharp as could be.

After seeing how easy it was to fix this problem and how much better the monitor looked, I can't believe I waited so long to fix it!

I've had mine for a couple of years now. The text has been slowly getting soft until it was finally downright blurry. Fine tuning all the OSD convergence controls did nothing, so I cracked open the service manual and found the focus controls on the flyback. About 10 minutes later, the monitor back had been removed, the top shield removed and the glyptol on the focus1 and focus2 screws removed and the text was as sharp as could be.

After seeing how easy it was to fix this problem and how much better the monitor looked, I can't believe I waited so long to fix it!

just fyi, you dont even need to remove the casing to adjust the focus pots. i adjusted mine with a correctly sized flathead screwdriver through the vents in the casing.

Looking for some help from anyone on this thread. I've looked through 90% of the pages on the hard forum and still need help. I came across 2 fw900's both in non working condition. One will power on and accept a signal for what seems like 2 or 3 seconds before powering down, while having a strong green tint to image. The other powers on intermitently with the menu although will not display an input. The second one has a strong blue tint. I've gotten a rs232 cable, but havent utilized it yet as i'm in the process of recouping an old pc to display the test image some spoke of. I have a copy of the service manual and am somewhat of a novice to tv repair, but carry some minor repair work. Please advise if anyone has had any similar issues or could send me to a start point. The units were used in a cad cam scenerio so they may carry quite a bit of use, but i have no money to invest in new monitor and i'm hoping to get at least one of these up and going. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry to be long winded, wanted to get as much out as i could, hoping someone will respond. Thanks!

just fyi, you dont even need to remove the casing to adjust the focus pots. i adjusted mine with a correctly sized flathead screwdriver through the vents in the casing.

Actually, in my case I did have to remove it. They used a LOT of glyptol on the adjusters and I couldn't get it to budge with a screwdriver. I ended up taking an X-acto to it to cut it loose, then I was able to pull the bits of glyptol off the adjusters and transformer.

If I need to adjust it in the future, I won't have to pull the back though and that is a good thing.

It sounds like issues in the power supply, or the video output circuit. A greenish display is normal, and it either goes away on its own after 30 minutes (these things do take a while to warm up), or it can be adjusted. As for the blue one, i'm afraid the tube could be shorted.

I'd say deal with the green one first, it has the most chances. To start with, replace all capacitors in the power supply area, except the main filter cap (the large 400V one). It shouldn't cost you more than $15 total. Then if it still shuts down you can start checking the transistors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ivan Beaver

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

Th3_uN1Qu3 - Thanks alot, I'm going to get the parts i need in next few days and dig in on the weekend. Please keep an open eye for my update, in hopes for further advice. Again thanks and more to come.......

Recently, my FW900 has been acting up: pushing the power button will result in a white flash, followed by a blank screen. The green light is on, but after a few seconds, an orange light comes on. This problem occurs after a cold boot, not from a restart. Any suggestions on what the problem could be?

I just bought a used but good condition fw 900 off from craiglist for 60 bucks he was asking 75. Young single college kid goona be moving soon so its to heavy hehe.

Anyways once in a while I notice common issue where the scren gets blurry and then it makes a pop noise if it goes back into focus all by itself, but I usually jsut power off the monitor for 10 seconds and back on and its fine for hours n hours until randomly it'll get all blurry again.

Now I do know basics electronics and I know how to soldier etc. Why do you have to understand schematics? Does the FBT have leads or legs like a capacitor that insert into holes through the circuit board I guess its called the D board, and its a matter of unsoldiering and soldering the new one? I would like to fix it myself because I fix alot of electronics, gaming consoles, even computers as myself have my own computer onsite/mobile tech bussiness. Heck I even work on things in my home, like plumbing, vehicles, etc hehe.

I'm more spooked about the danger part everyone talks about going inside the monitor, is it a matter of not touching other components inside or what? Like not touching something inside with your hands, arm, soldering iron tool, etc?

Just bought one of these and very disappointed ! I have a Sony TV and was expecting a brilliant picture, but no ! Very soft, not sharp at all, especially on text. Have checked convergence, tweaked focus and used 'Image Retoration' , all to no avail !! NOW WHAT ?? any tips or hints gratefully accepted

I think my FW900 is starting to go. I had to turn it off today for a bit, and when I turned it back on it began randomly flashing a blue screen and then going back to a normal looking display. I went into Windows and everything seems "off", and (less often) it's still randomly flashing blue then back to normal. Any idea what this means?

Bad video output IC, or even worse, shorting tube. The only way to find out which is it is to replace the video output IC. If it still does it, i'm afraid it's the tube. And no one had much luck trying to rejuvenate Trinitrons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ivan Beaver

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

It kicks into standby because the power supply is overloaded (that's because of the brightness issue).

There is a hardware method of reducing G2 voltage, involving a bunch of resistors. If you can solder, try that. I'm in a hurry now but i'll post the link when i get back home.

could you point me to this method pls?
or anyone else know the link.

i'm trying to budget work on this monitor to determine if it looks like it will return to or close to 100%. i've been shopping for lcd's but still reluctant to move on.

i have the over bright problem, the convergent/popping flyback (that doesn't pop anymore), and a super bright green retrace that auto turns off the monitor on cold start.
i've done the image restore, and didn't do much.
my main concern is the convergence. i adjusted the flyback through the vents and it helped some. the center of the screen is decent, but the outsides are spotty. ie, left bottom and top corners are great, 1/4 distance from center is noticeably fuzzy.
i'm in win7 and cant get the the nokia test to run, but it almost looks like a center circle is good and the corners are good, but there is a fuzzy ring around the center.

any help on if this thing is recoverable would be greatly appreciated.

I just bought one of these calibrated to Sony Specs. I am going to primarily use it as a gaming monitor. Should I buy the HDFury with the Green cable for best picture quality? Also, which one will I need? Also, do I really need the Gamma boost that's included in the Advanced kit?